The real ROI of outsourced execution: What the data shows

What’s replacing in-house bloat and agency drag? Hybrid delivery at scale

Enterprise CMOs today face no shortage of strategic vision, but translating those strategies into outcomes often proves the harder lift. As expectations grow for faster campaign delivery, deeper personalization, and clearer ROI, many teams are constrained not by ideas, but by executional capacity. 

To meet these demands, marketing leaders are rethinking how work actually gets done. Execution has become a strategic function in its own right, and the structure that supports it can make or break performance.

The Avasant B2B Marketing Execution Report highlights a decisive shift across enterprise organizations. Traditional in-house models and high-cost agency retainers are being replaced with hybrid delivery frameworks that prioritize speed, scale, and specialized talent. These models aren’t just solving operational bottlenecks; they’re unlocking a new level of agility and impact.

A shift toward outcome-first delivery

The conversation around marketing execution has matured. It’s no longer just about getting things done. It’s about how efficiently, intelligently, and measurably teams can do the right things. 

The Avasant report reveals that 60.6% of Demand Center functions and 61.4% of Channel Marketing delivery are now handled externally. These execution-heavy areas are increasingly delivered by partners who bring specialized capabilities and flexible scale, rather than relying solely on internal teams. At the same time, only 19.4% of Executive and Strategy functions are outsourced, reinforcing the idea that strategy stays in-house while volume-heavy execution is delegated. 

This is not outsourcing for convenience. It is a conscious shift in delivery design. Leading CMOs are optimizing how work gets done to focus internal resources where they have the greatest strategic impact.

Real impact, not just more activity

Avasant’s data ties these delivery decisions to real performance benefits. Enterprises report that when execution is externalized to the right partners, the results follow. 

• Campaign deployment time improves by 20–30% 
• Content production cycles are reduced by as much as 30% 
• Personalization increases, enabled by scalable GenAI support 

This kind of operational uplift is critical for CMOs under pressure to move faster, reach wider, and still prove measurable ROI. These are not marginal gains. They represent the difference between meeting revenue targets and missing them.

Technology enables the model, but it doesn’t fix it alone

Investing in technology is only part of the solution. While over 20% of the average marketing budget still goes toward traditional MarTech, only 3.5% is being invested in emerging tech like GenAI. This reflects both a lag in adoption and a gap in operational readiness. 

Tools such as ChatGPT, used only by 27.6% of organizations, and Jasper AI, used by 8.6%, are helping organizations create personalized content and execute campaigns faster. But these tools don’t deliver results on their own. They need to be deployed inside a modern, scalable execution model in order to create real business impact. 

That’s why leading CMOs are pairing AI adoption with workflow transformation. They are integrating these technologies into systems where execution is not siloed but designed for adaptability and performance.

From resource-heavy to resource-smart

Traditionally, when marketing performance slowed, the instinct was to add more people, bring in another agency, or layer on new tools. But high-performing CMOs are moving away from this “more is more” mentality. 

Instead, they are building elastic delivery systems that allow them to respond to changes in business demand without ballooning internal complexity. Subscription and project-based outsourcing models are increasingly preferred because they offer predictable access to specialized talent, accelerate campaign delivery, and maintain consistency without the overhead of full-time hiring. 

This means in-house teams can stay focused on strategic alignment, brand governance, and executive reporting, while executional volume is absorbed by external partners who are purpose-built for speed and precision.

Why execution is now a boardroom conversation

Execution has moved out of the shadows. It is no longer treated as a downstream function. Boards are paying closer attention to how quickly marketing can respond to business needs, deliver pipeline, and report on results. And when execution stalls, the impact is felt across sales, customer engagement, and revenue forecasting. 

That’s why the shift to hybrid execution models is not simply an operational adjustment. It’s a strategic necessity. 

By externalizing high-skill, high-velocity marketing functions, CMOs are closing the gap between planning and performance. They are transforming execution from a bottleneck into a growth accelerator.

Better results, without more complexity

When done well, outsourced execution delivers more than cost efficiency. It improves agility, accelerates impact, and reduces the strain on internal teams. It also creates space for strategic clarity, freeing CMOs to think, plan, and align rather than troubleshoot and micromanage. 

The ROI is not just in faster delivery. It’s in better decision-making, improved personalization, and measurable outcomes that matter to the business.

Put performance back in your model

If your team is hitting delivery walls, or if your MarTech investment is underutilized, it may be time to rearchitect how execution happens. The Avasant data points to a clear advantage for organizations that modernize their delivery models. 

Download the full Avasant B2B Marketing Execution Report to explore the metrics behind high-performing execution. 

See how 2X helps CMOs build elastic marketing delivery systems that combine AI-powered workflows, specialist talent, and subscription-based flexibility. Our marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) model is trusted by over 200 enterprise brands to drive efficiency, boost velocity, and accelerate impact across the funnel.